BJP would have arranged more seats in 15 days, says Amit Shah

New Delhi: Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa could have been able to prove majority if he had a fortnight to face the test of strength. Because, BJP President Amit Shah said yesterday, many Legislators of the Janata Dal (Secular) would have sensed the public mood in their constituencies against the “unholy” alliance with the Congress and supported the BJP government on their own.

Shah rebutted the Congress-JD(S) accusation that it had been trying to lure their Legislators with bribes running into crores of rupees. If this had been true, the party would have managed to reach the majority mark, Shah said to a private TV channel in the national capital.

“Had we got the 15-day period to prove our majority, their party MLAs would have gone to their constituencies and they would have changed their mind,” Shah said, according to a statement by the television channel. But they were locked away by their parties in hotels and elsewhere, he said.

Leaders of the Congress- JD(S) combine say they had to shield their Legislators from pressure plied by the BJP to engineer defections. Over the last two days, the Congress has backed up its allegation with audio tapes, of what it claimed, were a recording of phone calls received from BJP leaders including Janardhan Reddy, the scam-tainted mining baron from Ballari.

H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was invited by the Governor to become Chief Minister on Saturday evening, had earlier alleged some of his party’s lawmakers had received offers of Rs.100 crores in cash and Ministerial berths in exchange for their support.

Amit Shah, considered the BJP’s master strategist, also denied that the BJP would try to pull down the alliance government. He, however, predicted that the government would not last long due to internal pressure that would pull it in different directions. “You just wait for one year,” he said, prophesying a major victory for the BJP in the next elections held in the State.

“Such a government will not last long in the State. Congress leaders have themselves not accepted their alliance with JD(S),” said Shah, whose party has been accused for trying to bribe or arm-twist legislators into supporting Yeddyurappa.